"The nation's business [community] should be more actively involved in developing mass sports and its infrastructure," Putin told a session of a presidential council on physical training and sports.
He added that activities should focus on children's and junior sports, as well as on infrastructure for the disabled.
Putin praised the efforts of Russia's big business, highlighting the Gazprom to Children project run by the country's energy giant. The project aims to build and modernize sports schools and facilities in the regions, primarily in towns and villages, and sponsor nationwide children's competitions.
First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in March that Gazprom had allocated 2 billion rubles (about $75 million) this year to the project, which is expected to involve 60,000 children, and that the same sum would be spent next year.
Late last year the government ratified a concept for a federal program on sports and physical education in 2006-2015, which is part of a state policy to encourage healthy lifestyles.
The concept said that only 10% of Russians took regular exercise 10%, whereas the figure for industrialized nations stands at from 40% to 50%.
